"I heard this loud bang. I live in a 24-story building on the 23rd floor. All of a sudden, I look up and the lights are shaking, and I hear car alarms going off. It was incredible," said witness Michael Garnett.

The meteor has done a lot of damage, blasting out countless windows in a city in the Ural Mountains.

A health official said nearly 1,000 people got treatment for injuries with more than 40 in the hospital.

Amateur video showed an object speeding across the sky just after sunrise, leaving a thick white contrail and an intense flash.

A University of Louisville professor said the meteor was in no way related to an asteroid that whizzed past earth Friday afternoon traveling about eight times faster than a bullet.

The two made for a once-in-a-lifetime astrological event.

Tim Dowling, who is in UofL's physics and astronomy department, said while there's no connection between the two because the meteor and asteroid came from different directions, he's astonished just the same.

"I woke up this morning to see a big asteroid to come by. We've been expecting that for awhile, but I was surprised to see this explosion in Russia," said Dowling.

Dowling, like many, has been closely monitoring what happened in Russia and said he was amazed with the number of videos posted on the Internet.

"Here it comes, boom. Look at that. So that's called a fireball," said Dowling.

Dowling said the meteor that lit up the Russian sky, causing damaging sonic booms, weighed about 10 metric tons.

"Most of the shooting stars you see, those are pea-sized to about fist-sized. They never make it through (the atmosphere). The explosion in Russia that happened hours ago, didn't actually hit the ground," said Dowling.

NASA's Near-Earth Object Program tracks thousands of space rocks, but not meteors as small as the one in Russia. Experts have known for some time an asteroid was coming Friday, weighing 190,000 metric tons, it zipped by Earth Friday afternoon, the closest in recorded history.

"This asteroid came inside the satellites, actually gets 17,000 miles to Earth, closer than the satellites," said Dowling.

He also pointed out while the Near-Earth Object Program monitors asteroids 100 years out, scientists are worried about what they can't predict.

"The comets come in with no warning. They actually cause the most concern, long term," said Dowling.

According to Dowling, a human has never been killed by a meteorite.

It's a very rare occurrence, but things flying through space have been known to slam into our planet.

Collision Course: Earth Impacts Throughout History

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Wikimedia Commons

An asteroid half the size of a football field, will have a close encounter with the Earth on Feb. 15. NASA said there is no chance that the asteroid will slam into the planet, but it will pass closer to the Earth than the moon.